I found the comfort I was seeking in the kitchen’s rustic, vegetable- and bean-packed soup of the evening, served up with a crusty, olive oil-brushed crouton. The knuckle-sized, plumply delicious gnocchi was also scrumptious, tossed with flavorful, tender pieces of duck confit and snappy arugula leaves, then garnished with feathery shavings of Vella aged Jack cheese.

But it may have been Magpie’s fabulous, over-sized chocolate chunk cookie that really did it for me – perfectly baked, just moist enough, laced with high quality chocolate and very, very satisfying – it was a spectacular end to a very nurturing meal.